Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, \u200bspeaking in New York on Tuesday, criticized the U.S. administration for what he described as normalizing the \u200cerasure of Black history, warning that such policies could have ripple effects elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Since his return to power, U.S. President Donald Trump has\u00a0targeted U.S. cultural and historical institutions\u00a0– from museums to monuments to national parks – to remove what he calls “anti-American” ideology.<\/p>\n
His declarations and executive orders \u200bhave led to the dismantling of slavery exhibits, the restoration of Confederate statues and other moves that civil \u200brights advocates say could reverse decades of social progress.<\/p>\n
“These policies are becoming a template for \u2060other governments as well as some private institutions,” Mahama said, speaking at an event on slavery reparations at the \u200bUnited Nations. “At the very least, they are slowly normalizing the erasure.”<\/p>\n
Mahama said that in the U.S., Black history courses were \u200bbeing removed from school curricula, institutions were being mandated to stop teaching the “truth of slavery, segregation and racism,” and books addressing these subjects were increasingly banned.<\/p>\n
Asked about Mahama’s remarks, a White House spokesperson said Trump had done more for Black Americans than any other president, \u200band that he was proud to have received “historic support” from the Black community in the 2024 election.<\/p>\n
“He is working \u200baround the clock to deliver for them and make our country greater than ever before,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
GHANA TO PROPOSE SLAVERY RESOLUTION \u200cAT <\/strong>\u2060U.N.<\/strong><\/p>\n Mahama, who last year announced a deal to\u00a0accept West Africans deported\u00a0by the U.S., previously criticized Trump for his\u00a0false claims of white genocide\u00a0and land seizures in South Africa, calling them an insult to Africans.<\/p>\n Mahama is in New York to propose a resolution at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday to recognize transatlantic slavery as the “gravest crime in the \u200bhistory of humankind” and to \u200bcall for reparations.<\/p>\n The West African \u2060nation has been a leading advocate for reparations, a cause that has\u00a0gained significant momentum\u00a0in recent years, even as a growing\u00a0backlash has emerged.<\/p>\n Several Western leaders have opposed even discussing \u200bthe subject, with critics arguing that today’s states and institutions should not be held \u200bresponsible for historical \u2060wrongs.<\/p>\n The draft resolution, seen by Reuters, urges member states to engage in dialogue on reparations, including issuing formal apologies, returning stolen artifacts, providing financial compensation, and ensuring guarantees of non-repetition.<\/p>\n The resolution has been backed by the nations of the African Union \u2060and the \u200bCaribbean Community, as well as countries like Brazil.<\/p>\n Ghana’s foreign minister, Samuel Ablakwa, \u200bsaid the European Union and the U.S. had already communicated they would not back the resolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, \u200bspeaking in New York on Tuesday, criticized the U.S. administration for what he described as normalizing the \u200cerasure of Black history, warning that such policies could have ripple effects elsewhere. Since his return to power, U.S. President Donald Trump has\u00a0targeted U.S. cultural and historical institutions\u00a0– from museums to monuments to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":8,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,33,27],"tags":[4969,158,2858],"class_list":["post-20269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-politics","category-west-africa","tag-black-history","tag-ghana","tag-john-dramani-mahama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20270,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20269\/revisions\/20270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}